10 Things Harvey Hates About Mike
by SamMademedoit
Summary: Rachel's the new kid who befriends Mike Ross, the resident pothead delinquent, and pushes him to date Harvey Specter, the biggest asshole on campus, so she can date his sister, Donna.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Another prompt of the suits meme on lj, I'm filling.

Prompt:10 Things I Hate About You, suits style with Donna/Rachel and Harvey/Mike, or as close as I could bring it to that.

Disclaimer: I don't own either the plot for 10 Things I Hate About You or for Suits.

Summary: Rachel's the new kid who befriends Mike Ross, the school's resident pothead and delinquent, and pushes him to date Harvey Specter, the biggest dick on campus who everyone loves to hate, so that she can date his sister, Donna.

Rachel Zane is used to being an army brat. The first rule is to never get attached to the school you're attending. The words of the guidance counselor of Black Oaks High rang in her ears, and she couldn't help but agree with them. Different school, same little shits.

She's gone to nine different schools in the past year and in none of those had she found any extraordinary people that didn't fit into one clique or another. She thinks it's intriguing how people striving to be unique and different usually just forces them to be just like everyone else.

Then she meets Mike Ross, her guide. After staring at the silver ring dangling from the left side of his mouth for an uncomfortable amount of time, she holds her hand out for him to shake. Then she registers the perfume of weed seeping from the kid and has to resist the urge to roll her eyes.

"Oh good, usually they send some honor student type to show me around," she can't help but say all snarky. Mike chuckles like it wasn't a jab at him and maybe if Rachel smoked as much pot as this guy did she wouldn't be able to tell either. It's best if he doesn't notice the insult. Black Oaks is four stories and she does not want to get lost here.

Then he surprises her with witty comments about the blatantly obvious cliques and awful cafeteria food that is standard with all high schools, but it's sort of a bonding experience.

Enough of a bonding experience that the next day she hangs out with him without being prompted to by the guidance counselor. Rachel guesses that she surprised him, but he adjusted to her trailing him easy enough. She's talking and laughing with Mike and his friend Trevor when it happens. It's August 19, 2011, and she has seen perfection this day.

"Who is that?" Rachel interrupts their current discussion. Mike follows the direction of her gaze to the redheaded goddess walking across the grounds in tight blue jeans and a blue tank top.

Mike snorts in an endearing but slightly irritating way. "That's someone who you should forget about right away. She's not interested in being friends with us lower life forms."

Rachel bites her lip. She's a little nervous, but she knows she should get this out of the way now. "Is she interested in being more than friends with us lower life forms?"

Mike blinks and then smiles. "I knew there was a reason I liked you." Rachel rolls her eyes. "Shut up and answer the question."

Mike leans back in his chair and has that lazy smile that seems to be stuck on his face either from the amount of pot he consumes or just his personality. "Well which do you want me to do? Shut up or answer your question?" Such a smartass. Rachel looks at him pointedly.

"I think that's a question you should direct at her. I think she's looking for a French tutor," Mike finally says, tired of teasing her.

"Perfect!" Rachel says. Mike does a double take, the ring bouncing slightly in his lip.

"You know French?" Mike asks.

"Well, no, but I know Mandarin, Japanese, and Spanish. French shouldn't be too hard to pick up." Mike looks shocked so Rachel shrugs. "Sometimes being an army brat is awesome."


	2. Chapter 2

On Rachel's third day at Black Oaks High she can't find Mike Ross anywhere on school grounds. Trevor says it's common for him to miss two days of school per week on average and she can see that in his personality. She feels a little put out, because she forgot to ask him what the redheaded woman's name was and because she kind of likes having the druggie around. A huff of irritation escapes her mouth as yet another person approaches her to warn her off against hanging out with Ross.

Apparently, an unforeseen consequence of his absence is that without him around all the other students feel safe enough to spread rumors of Mike's scariness.

Rachel hears a dozen before she gets fed up. Each rumor is steadily more ridiculous than the last. So far she's heard everything from 'Mike likes to kick puppies in his free time', to 'I heard he burned down the gym in his last school and had to go to jail all last year.'

Rachel decides that people are dumb. Mike might very well be a delinquent, everyone seems to shy away from him at school, and his attendance record isn't the best, but Rachel would guess that the only way he set fire to anything is by accidentally dropping his roach. She's not even going to delve into the puppies rumor, it's so ridiculous.

Mike misses class often, but not because he doesn't care about school. His Gram gets sick a lot and sometimes he can't bring himself to leave her cramped up in the small apartment they share all alone. Plus, it's not like the absences will hurt his grades. He could probably just show up on test days and still ace his classes.

Still, his truancies worry his Grams, so often times he'll skip the morning and check into school around lunch time so he can pick up all the work he missed and still catch his last two classes. Grams still isn't happy, but it's a compromise.

Mike thinks that the new girl, Rachel, is kind of awesome. In less than three days, she has the whole school thinking that she's some kind of badass army chick who has a foul mouth and a easy to ignite temper. Of course half of that was started by her hanging out with him, but Rachel's scary in her own right too.

That's the only reason why he's tempted to tell her his tale of sorrow the moment she cocks her hip and asks where the hell he's been.

"It was kind of freaky without you here, man," Trevor adds from his spot across from Rachel. "It was too quiet."

Mike can see that happening. Rachel and Trevor haven't built up the rapport between themselves to a suitable degree, and they both are less chatty than Mike. He looks at Rachel still looking for an excuse to leave his lips and suddenly feels irritated with her.

"I didn't feel like coming. That's all," Mike scoffs out before sitting in his usual seat beside Trevor.

Rachel is gearing up for another rant, but is distracted, as is everybody else, by a student dumping his tray of chicken pasta over another student's head. Everyone ignores the other student's cry of outrage and watches as the other boy calmly walks out the cafeteria door.

"Who was that?" Rachel asks. Mike chuckles.

"Which one, the dumpee or the dumper?" Rachel smiles, "Both."

"Oh. Well, the guy currently decorated in food is Louis Litt. He's a prick by everyone's standards, but his family is loaded so everyone who is anyone is nice to him. The guy with anger management problems is Harvey Specter, your little lover girl's older brother. Her name's Donna by the way."

Rachel lets that sink in for a bit before replying, "I like him already."

Mike snorts, "Yeah? You would be the only person who does. By the way, I heard you're going to be tutoring Miss Specter on Wednesdays.

Rachel blinks slowly, "No, I just signed up today. Tutoring schedules haven't been posted yet."

Trevor laughs, "Mike has a way of knowing these things. Don't doubt him. If he says you are tutoring Donna, you're tutoring Donna unless you screw it up."

Rachel doesn't squeal, but the grin on her face tells Mike that she wants to.


	3. Chapter 3

"J'ai faim. Je vais être affamés .J'ai été affamés " Rachel carefully pronounces in a low voice as to not upset the librarian. In thirty minutes she'll tutor Donna for the first time and verb tenses are still giving Rachel hell.

Rachel scratches a few notes down in her notebook and cradles her cheek in the palm of her hand. It's a lot easier to learn a language when surrounded by the culture and usage of that language on a permanent basis. In the last week, Rachel has watched every DVD with French dubbing as an option and that has helped, but she's still nervous.

She finds herself thanking her good fortune that Donna Specter is in French I instead of a higher level class.

"Rachel Zane?"

At the feminine voice's inquiry, Rachel starts abruptly. She looks at the proud figure leaning slightly on the table Rachel is sitting on and promptly swallows her tongue. She stares at Donna briefly and takes in the tight blue jeans with rips at the knees, exposing her soft pale skin to Rachel's gaze. A plain cotton tee adorns her and on anyone else it would look plebian. Rachel thinks she looks amazing.

A quick glance up at Donna's face and Rachel realizes that the redhead is still waiting on an answer. Impatiently, if the eye roll is any indication.

"Bon après-midi. Mon nom est Rachel Zane," Rachel rushes. Then, at Donna's blank stare she wants to slap herself silly.

"I mean, good afternoon. My name is Rachel Zane," Rachel says and holds out her hand confidently, like she can't feel her cheeks burning.

Donna purses her lips. "Well, at least I know you're qualified to be my tutor what with you jumping in like that," she says wryly.

A dainty hand with manicured pink nails lightly grips Rachel's before the redhead sits in the seat in front of her. Rachel marvels at how incongruous that hand is with the rest of Donna's get up. She takes in a deep breath of air, swallows her nervousness, and grins.

"Let's get started."

Fifteen minutes later Donna slams the book closed in frustration.

"There has got to be an easier way to do this," she grumbles while running long fingers through her ginger locks. Thanks to her dad's career, Rachel has seen seven different big cities on American soil and two in China. Still, the redhead's pout has to be the cutest thing she's seen.

Rachel carefully diverts her eyes to her notes on the table in front of her and clears her throat. "Well, we could try the casual approach to it," she suggests.

"Casual? And that approach would include…," Donna trails off inquisitively.

Rachel gathers her courage and locks gazes with the other woman. "It might include a nice French restaurant and this Saturday," she says as calmly as she can manage.

Donna's eyebrow quirks upwards and she smiles as she leans across the table to whisper suggestively, "And who would be paying for dinner?"

Rachel swallows, her mouth suddenly dry. "I would, obviously. Since I invited you it would only be polite."

Donna tilts her head a little to the left and squints her eyes slightly like she's examining some new anomaly and she isn't quite sure if it's amazing or kind of disturbing. Then her expression clears.

"Are you asking me out on a date? That is adorable!" She nearly shouts it, and the librarian sends a loud shush their way. Rachel and Donna scrunch down in their seats and grin at each other.

"So is that a yes?" Rachel asks, excitement and happiness curling in her stomach.

"Well, there's a slight issue. I can't date until my brother does," Donna says with an almost sheepish grin on her face.

Rachel blinks. "Oh, so how do you feel about sailing?"

Donna rolls her eyes. "No, no, no. I don't think you understand. My brother is… difficult," she mutters.

Rachel sits back in her chair and looks at the other woman skeptically. "This isn't just a brush-off is it? Because I'm a big girl and can handle it if you're not interested."

Actually, she's not sure about that last part, but Donna doesn't need to know the clearly stalker-like tendencies Rachel has been showing the last couple of days.

Donna's response is to rake her gaze over Rachel's body from head to her midsection, since the rest is covered by the large oak table. She smiles reassuringly, "No, I'm definitely not brushing you off. You'd be able to tell if I was brushing you off, I promise you."

Rachel takes a shaky breath, "Okay. Great. Umm, so all we have to do is find someone to date your brother. Why is he difficult? Is he picky or something, because I didn't see him up close or anything, but anybody related to you can't be anything less than stunning, so I doubt it is his looks that's keeping him from the ladies." Rachel realizes that she's babbling, and promptly clamps her lips shut.

Donna breaths out a husky laugh, and Rachel's stomach clenches in excitement.

"You're adorable," Donna say leaning her arm resting on the desk. Her brown doe eyes flutter up to lock gazes with Rachel's.

"No, Harvey is attractive enough to make women swoon at his feet, and that would be great if he went for that sort of thing, but he's not interested in the fairer sex."

Rachel tries to process this and it does not compute. It must show up on her face because Donna is laughing again. Rachel should be offended, but instead she finds herself willing to make silly faces on a daily basis if it means hearing that laugh again.

"I know right? I've been telling him he's crazy since he was five. How can you not like women? I'll never understand him," Donna continues.

It's Rachel's turn to chuckle. "Well, this school's enrollment numbers are huge. Surely, they are more homosexual men than just your older brother. We'll find him a date no problem.

Donna eyes her a moment, then smiles. "It's more than the fact that he's homo. He also doesn't care a lick about being popular."

Rachel takes a moment to pointedly look at Donna's wardrobe then asks, "And you do?"

Donna laughs loud enough to make the librarian scowl in their direction.

"No, babe. I don't, but it's harder on guys, you know that. Plus, he's a dick."

Rachel considers this, "There are some crazy people out there. People who jump out of planes. My dad gets shot at for a living. I'm pretty sure we can find someone to date your difficult brother long enough for me to treat you to a good French dinner and maybe a movie."

Donna brushes her hand lightly over Rachel's. "You would do that? For me?"

"Hell yeah," Rachel grins.

They were so caught up with each other that they couldn't hear the footsteps heading their way.

"Excuse me, Donna? You never gave me an answer." A nasally voice interrupted the first real moment between Rachel and Donna. Rachel looks up with murder in her eyes to observe the man lurking to the left of them. She vaguely recognizes him to be Louis Litt, the man Donna's brother had issues with.

Donna stiffens abruptly. She bites her lip and looks up at the other man with tears suddenly in her eyes. Louis and Rachel both freeze in shock/horror.

"I can't! Don't you understand? My brother doesn't approve and you've been stressing me out. Louis I just need…I need space," the redhead trails off brokenly weeping into her hands. Louis tries to pat Donna's back, but at the contact Donna flinches and cries harder.

Louis retreats quickly, all the eyes in the library locked on him as he escapes.

As soon as he's gone Donna sits up primly and begins dabbing the tears away from her eyes.

She takes in Rachel's slightly open mouth and the look of panic on her face and laughs.

Donna squeezes Rachel's hand once more before and says, "That's what my brushing someone off looks like."

Rachel falls in love all over again.


	4. Chapter 4

Mike takes a careful look at the cafeteria. Everything seems in order; the students are separated into clear cliques, the sludge on the cafeteria trays looks as unappetizing as usual, but Mike still feels like his world is off kilter.

Then, Trevor nudges him and gestures towards their table, where Donna Specter is emptying out her lunch box in Mike's usual spot.

Huh. That would do it.

"What's she doing there?" Trevor tries to mutter inconspicuously, which of course he fails at miserably. Mike tries to convey how inappropriate it would be for Trevor to act like a douche at this particular time with an irritable look and a well-timed elbow jab to Trevor's ribs.

Mike realizes that he's holding up the students trying to navigate their way through the cafeteria and starts walking once more to his table.

"Ow," Trevor hisses, but follows after him.

There's an awkward moment where Mike has to pick out a new seating arrangement and decides the seat diagonal from Donna is just as good. He sets his tray down and lowers himself onto blue plastic. Trevor takes his cues from Mike, but only up to a point.

"This isn't some set-up where your brother ninjas out of nowhere and dumps food on us, is it?" Mike wants to groan. Trevor always did let his curiosity get the best of him. Mike would have been perfectly content to sit in silence until Rachel arrived and explained it all.

Donna's lips quirk and she says, "Harvey is an overprotective, egotistical, manipulative asshole with major authority issues, but no. He's not a ninja to my knowledge."

She leans forward and whispers, "I think you're safe." She pulls back and rips her peanut butter and jelly sandwich into two unequal parts before munching on the smallest one.

Trevor still looks concerned for his well-being, or maybe his clothes' well-being, but he starts shoveling fries into his mouth anyways. Typical.

When Rachel finds them, Mike see's no indication of surprise on her face so he assumes that this was planned. She takes the seat directly facing Donna and quickly nabs a few of Mike's fries before he can protest.

Not that he would, he thinks, taking in the limp, too salty side dish.

Trevor seems to notice Rachel's lack of surprise too, and before Mike can tell him to keep his mouth shut Trevor opens his mouth and firmly plants his foot there.

"You know you can't just invite anyone you please to our table," Trevor says teasingly. Rachel stiffens from her relaxed sprawl and gentle smiles. Mike observes _something_ flash across Donna's face and if she were anyone else, Mike would say it was embarrassment or shyness, but she is the famous Donna Specter so Mike isn't sure.

Trevor finally seems to get that his joke isn't funny so he sputters, "We have a reputation to uphold after all. Girls can't be seen to be comfortable with us." Yeah, like that's going to smooth things over, Mike rolls his eyes and swallows the food in his mouth.

"You'll have to excuse Trevor," Mike says, looking Donna in the eye for the first time since they sat down. "He was dropped on his head as a toddler. Since then, he's always been sort of an ass."

Donna snorts and Rachel's shoulders relax.

"Hey!"

They all ignore Trevor's exclamation and continue eating lunch. Fifteen minutes before the bell that signals the end of lunch, Rachel starts running her eyes over Mike's face. Every time Mike looks up and meets her eyes, she breaks the connection quickly. Mike would think that she were flirting with him, except she's not wired that way. Finally, enough is enough.

"What is it, Rachel?" Mike asks tries to sound serious and somber, but just comes out mildly mellow.

Rachel bites her lip before glancing at the redhead in front of her. Donna seems to give her some kind of courage, because she turns her body to face Mike head on.

"I need your help," She says and Mike idly thinks, _so that's a serious tone._

Donna clears her throat. "Actually, WE need your help."

Great. Mike can tell this is going to be something he's not going to want to do. Something horrible, by the way both girls are nervously pleading with their eyes.

He thinks about the reputation Trevor and he so carefully built up. All the painful months of carving a niche out for themselves where they wouldn't have to worry about the popular kids coming in and trash talking them or hazing them.

Then he thinks about Rachel, and the easy way their conversations go. About her smile and the way she teases Trevor with the threat of beating him up. He thinks about the fact that she could probably carry out that threat. If Mike refuses to help he knows that he might keep his reputation, but he'd loose that and loosing Rachel's friendship is unacceptable.

He sighs and looks over at Trevor. Trevor does the best friend thing where he reads Mike's mind and grimaces.

"What do you girls need from the awesome Mikester," Mike asks casually and Rachel smiles and fist bumps the air.

"Yes!"


	5. Chapter 5

Mike contemplatively runs his tongue over the hunk of silver set in his lip. "So see it's really easy," Rachel finishes.

Mike chuckles. "Is that what you would call it," he asks disbelief written across his face.

Trevor scoffs, "Psh, Psychology 101 with Professor Burke is easy. That little brunette cheerleader in the front row of English is easy. Finding Harvey Specter, asshole extraordinaire, a boyfriend is anything but 'easy'. No offense," he says nodding in Donna's direction.

Donna just smiles, so Mike assumes that she is aware of her brother's assholery.

"Please guys, for me?" Rachel actually pouts, which is more off putting to Mike than upsetting. It's weird to see a pout where a perpetual frown is usually located.

Trevor caves before Mike does, again weird.

"Well, I guess I could round up some guys from Theater class. Stereotypical, I know, but some stereotypes are based on truth," Trevor says before picking up his tray and heading off to dump his remaining food.

Mike snorts at his friend's idiocy, and then notices the girls' expectant gazes fixed on him. Rachel starts tapping her fingers against the white table.

Click, click, click, click.

Click, click, click, click.

Mike swallows nervously, "Um…I guess I could interview the guys Trevor finds, and I know of a few homos who don't love the stage as much as that moron."

Trevor circles back just in time to catch the last bit of his sentence and smacks Mike in the head with the palm of his hand.

"Ouch!" Mike hollers, more in surprise than anything else.

"Wimp," Donna jeers and Mike scowls. Great, even the new girl in their group isn't the least bit afraid of him now.

Before Trevor can begin his usual tirade about the benefits and prestige that comes with being the Manager of both Lights and Sound Crew for the Black Oaks High's Drama Club, the bell rings. Which is fortunate because had the conversation continued, Mike would have felt compelled to mention that there were maybe thirty members of the Drama Club, and almost all of them are too focused on finding a way on the stage to worry about controlling happenings behind it. Trevor never really had any competition for his position.

Pointing that out might've gotten Mike smacked again. Mike could have taken it, but no one wants their ego bruised twice in one day.

"So Trevor will round up some people, Mike will round up some people, and we'll interview the applicants tomorrow. Is that the plan?", the petite redhead asks. Mike levels a blank stare at her for a moment.

"We?" he questions softly. Donna smirks. "Yeah, it's not like I'm going to let you pick out my brother's boy-toy all by yourself."

Everyone shares a laugh and then rise as one to start inching along with the crowd of their fellow high school students towards the double doors that signal liberation from the cafeteria.

Time to find Harvey Specter a boyfriend.

Three hours later Trevor and Mike are sitting on the bottom row of the bleachers. The blonde teen is softly kicking his shoes in the dirt as they observe the soccer team practice.

"So that was a bust," Trevor murmurs. Mike chuckles in agreement. Out of all the applicants, not a single guy was acceptable. Three of the guys Mike picked out laughed uncontrollably, in a stoner kind of way.

Mike still thinks that he beat Trevor though, because two of the goons that Trevor picked out ran away and the only attractive one of the bunch, a long haired blonde who played Hamlet in the last play if Mike remembers correctly, actually _cried_.

"Well those were the only homosexual guys in Black Oaks that I can think of. You got any other ideas Trevor," Mike asks continuing the motion of his foot, even though the front of his sneaker has gone dusty brown instead of white. Trevor clears his throat and looks at Mike pointedly.

"What," Mike says defensively.

"Those guys weren't the _only_ fruitcakes in our school," Trevor says with a smirk and nudges Mike with his shoulder.

Mike's hand flies to smack solidly into Trevor's stomach flab. "Shut it! I told you that in secret, you douche."

Trevor rubs his hand soothingly over the place where Mike thumped him. "And? Look around! No one's here to overhear. What's got you so grumpy. Just because you want a piece of this hot body doesn't mean you have a right to smack every which way," Trevor grumbles.

Mike's eyes scan his immediate vicinity and he takes in the empty bleachers and that the soccer team is more than twenty feet away from them. There's no way anyone overheard and yet Mike can feel his cheeks flush before he can clamp it down.

"Yeah, well still," Mike says lamely. Trevor's frown lightens slowly and he pats Mike's should reassuringly.

Mike gets it together and says, "High school is hard enough with out being out at school, Trevor. I like Rachel and all, but I'm not about to come out just so she can get a date. Not happening, we'll have to think of something else."

Trevor nods, then says, "True, but if it's your reputation you're worried about I urge you to look at Harvey Specter. He's out and still manages to be one of the scariest students up here. You know we have a strict No Tolerance policy. What are you scared of exactly, Mike?"

A loud thunk and shouted curses interrupt whatever Mike's answer was going to be. Instead both boys look at what started the commotion. A sweaty Harvey Specter is trying to explain to the coach that "No it really wasn't my fault. I wouldn't kick a soccer ball into this guy' nuts on purpose." And it's a true testament to how loud they are being that Mike and Trevor can hear everything said crystal clear.

Mike clears his throat. "Okay, maybe for a second we can put the argument of my coming out on the back burner and discuss how you want me to come out and date the scariest and possibly rudest guy available to my species? Do you despise me that much," Mike turns wild eyes to his best friend.

Trevor chuckles. "That's what makes him so damn interesting! Why don't you go on and talk to him? You know, when he finishes getting chewed out. You might kick it off or something."

Mike levels him with a disbelieving stare, before shifting up off the bleachers. Locking his gaze on Harvey Specter and starting his trek to the athlete, Mike mutters, "If you find the asshole so interesting, why am I the one that's being urged to date him."

His only answer is Trevor's manic chuckle.


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: Thank you for all the lovely reviews. I would individually respond to everyone, but I'm lazy. Sorry! :D But I will address a few remarks I remember. Someone said that Harvey seems more like a football player than soccer, and I agree. In my story ,Subliminate, Harvey is Football Jock extraordinaire, but I'm trying to stick to the original movie as much as I can and I like some diversity in my works. Plus, I think every sport has its own grace and power associated with it, except maybe table tennis but that's just probably because I don't get it.. I think Harvey could be drawn to soccer just as easily as football.

To the person who said that Mike isn't really scary at all, I'm trying to emphasize how horribly wrong rumors get everything :D. I'm glad you're enjoying the girls' interaction with him too and that you find the coming out issue natural. That was especially encouraging to me, because I worried about making it too dramatic or too superfluous. A lot of readers liked that I added the aspect of coming out to it, so I'm very glad.

Trevor isn't gay, it's just a bromance sort of thing.

Hmmm I think that's it. To everyone else: Thanks so much for your reviews! And here's the next part!

Mike slows down midway to the bench where Harvey is sitting with his head tipped back as he guzzles Gatorade down from his water bottle. From this point he can see Harvey's taut muscles and slick skin. Mike swallows with an audible gulp. He also can still hear Trevor chuckling behind him, so there's no chance of escaping with dignity, Mike thinks.

He resumes a steady pace to Harvey, all the while thinking of what to say.

'What's up?', Mike decides is too douchey.

Harvey finishes his drink, finally.

'Want to date?', is too blunt. Harvey's moping the sweat from his brow with a spare towel Mike failed to notice before now.

'So…you play soccer?', lame.

Suddenly, Mike's at his destination and he's completely unprepared.

Harvey straightens up in his seat, eyes locked on Mike. Mike sits a respectable distance away from the other man and remembers a conversation he had with Jenny a week ago about bad guys being sexy.

He pops a cigarette out of his pack and hopes whatever mad stunt he's about to pull works.

He lights it, takes a long drag, then smirks at Harvey and says, "Hey."

The blond tries not to groan when he realizes that that's all he's got. Harvey looks vaguely disgusted, or maybe constipated in his 'I'm better than everybody' way.

"Hi," Harvey says sardonically with his eyebrow hiked on his forehead. Mike stares at the fuzzy slash above Harvey's eye like it has all the answers in the universe, especially the answer to how to appear cool while in the appearance of one Harvey Specter.

"You know, You're not actually supposed to smoke pot at school. It's a level three offense," Harvey says conversationally.

Mike looks at him confused before he chuckles foolishly. "It's not marijuana. Just a cigarette. Plus, you're wrong. It's a level four offense," Mike responds. Harvey has his right leg pulled up resting on the bench with him so he can tie his shoe more easily.

"Is that so," Harvey mutters, not bothering to look up from the task at hand.

Mike clears his voice nervously. "Yep, it is so. Because I read the agenda from cover to cover, and once I read something I never forget it," Mike says jokingly. Harvey glances over to the blonde at that. His eyes scan Mike's body skeptically, not finding anything worth notice he turns back around.

Mike sits in awkward silence until he notices Trevor making hand gestures at him from across the field. His friend's hands curve into an arc as he waves to get Mike's attention. Then when he has it, he gives Mike a thumbs-up, which makes Mike roll his eyes. He really doesn't need any help from the peanut gallery on this.

Still, seeing Trevor does give him an idea.

Harvey stands up to go off the field presumably. All the other players left minutes ago. Mike flicks the butt of his cigarette off on the field somewhere before standing himself.

"How do you deal with it," Mike says honest curiosity bleeding into his voice. Harvey pauses and shifts his legs slightly apart. Battle stance.

"Deal with what?", Harvey asks cautiously.

"Being out. I'm not as brave as you I guess. Or stupid, it could be stupidity. My friend keeps urging me to come out, but I don't want anything to change. Not really, you know?", Mike blurts out. His nervousness gets the better of him, especially since he tries not to talk if he doesn't have to. He believes that words can never be unsaid, so Mike likes to be careful with them.

Harvey's lip twitches and suddenly he's invading Mike's personal space. His hand clasps Mike's hoodie tightly and Mike licks the hunk of silver in his mouth nervously. Momentarily, Harvey's eyes flash down to rest on Mike's lips before they dart back to look directly into Mike's eyes. Mike feels like Harvey's looking directly into his soul, and Harvey finds Mike's soul wanting.

"Now look here. I don't know what kind of game you're playing here, Kid, but bigger assholes than you have tried it. It didn't end too well for them, so take your joke and go shove it up your friend's ass for me will you? Thanks," Harvey says gruffly. His gaze lingers to glance over Mike's face once more before quickly letting go of the blond and stomping off towards the gym.

Mike waits for his heart to stop racing before swallowing the not of worry and guilt lodged in his throat. He trudges back to where Trevor is standing, looking worriedly at his friend. Mike snorts, finding sudden amusement at Trevor's guilty expression.

Before he reaches his friend, Mike mutters, "Wasn't a joke, asshole."


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: So my job of three years decided to give me and all of my coworkers seven days to get new jobs, since they decided to sell out. In the last month or so I've been from one side of panic to the other. I'm sorry it's been so long without an update but I'll make it up to everyone now. Amazing how much being without a stable income can affect my creative juices lol…BUT I'm back now :D.

Mike, Rachel, Donna, and Trevor are halfway through lunch the next day and Harvey Specter hasn't been brought into a single conversation so far. Mike feels the tension in his shoulders relaxing and he thinks that maybe the girls have found a way around their little problem.

Maybe even a solution that doesn't involve convincing a random male student to attempt dating Harvey Specter.

Mike lets his mind drift and his eyes unconsciously lift to level his gaze to a to table located towards the back of the cafeteria. To the table where Harvey sits next to an attractive light skinned African American woman with sharp cheekbones and a suggestive smirk on her plump lips.

Mike hears Rachel ask him a question, but he's too caught up in studying Harvey's open body language to respond with more than a mumbled affirmative. Mike takes a moment to wonder what kind of person the beautiful woman seated next to Harvey must be to be so informal and friendly with the dark-haired man.

He watches the woman eye a junior seated across the room critically before whispering something into Harvey's ear. Mike takes in his chuckle, even though he can't hear it he can see it and that is enough for Mike to be enthralled apparently, and the warmth in his eyes and Mike feels a loud _thud-thud-thud_ in his chest.

Say what you want to about the man, Harvey Specter is insanely attractive, and even more so when he smiles.

That could be a selling point that we missed, Mike thinks idly. Trevor could tell the poor chumps that they try to set up Harvey Specter with, 'Yeah, he's an ass, and kind of terrifying, but his smile is gorgeous!'

Mike acknowledges silently that the only time he's seen Harvey smile, the other man was either with Donna, or was being cruel to some unfortunate soul (or Louis).

Then, Mike acknowledges that his previous acknowledgement does nothing to make the pink lips stretched over a flash of white any less gorgeous. Or compelling.

Suddenly that smile slips back into hiding and Mike can blink once more, so he does. Then he looks directly into Harvey's cold shuttered eyes.

Mike abruptly huffs and turns his neck to look at Rachel and smile brightly.

"So what're we talking about?" Mike questions.

Donna chuckles, "Well, I'd like to talk about why exactly my brother's looking at you like you killed his cat, Fluffy."

Trevor replies before Mike even has time to properly draw a breath.

"Mike struck out with him last night," he blurts out, eagerness dripping from every word.

Like he's been dying to say them since the beginning of lunch when he first sat down across from Mike. Perhaps even before that.

Traitor, Mike thinks and kicks his shin under the table.

"I didn't 'strike out' with him, Asshat," Mike mutters.

When Trevor-the-Traitor finishes rubbing the sore spot on his leg he smirks and replies, "Oh, really? What would you call the complete failure of last night then?"

Mike scowls in irritation. Where was the concern? The sympathy?

"Generally, you have to be pursuing someone romantically before you can strike out with them, which I wasn't," Mike grits out to an unbelieving audience.

Trevor chuckles.

"I wasn't! I was just there, being friendly, and he was just there, being a dick. So the night ended with me finding out what would happen if someone like me tried talking to someone like him. For the curious minds who want to know, that hypothetical situation ends with someone like me getting manhandled, then threatened, and then left behind," Mike realized that he's coming close to whining, so he takes a deep breath to calm himself.

Mike observes his friends' reactions carefully. He observes Trevor's _ever_ persistent smirk and Donna's wide eyed gaze with little concern, but the look on Rachel's face chills him to the bone. She looks…calculating, so Mike continues talking mainly just to prevent whatever wicked idea is formulating in the army brat's head being spilled out onto the table.

"Furthermore, in baseball you have to get three strikes before you've officially 'struck out.' As last night was my first - and only!-" Mike can't help but emphasize to Rachel, "attempt at socializing with Harvey Specter, I reiterate that I did not 'strike out' as you so put it, Trevor."


	8. Chapter 8

"So wait, now I'm confused," Donna mutters. "Are you or are you not open to dating my brother," Donna asks, her brown eyes looking larger and more watery than usual. Mike looks at Rachel and sees the almost hopeful tilt to her head, and he has to take a steadying breath.

"Look, I'm not even sure about this whole 'gay' thing," Mike says before the girls can get too excited. Trevor lets out a snort and bites his lip to hold back a grin from splitting across his face.

Mike feels his eyes narrow in irritation. "The guy who used to sneak into my grandmother's room to try on her clothes when he was seven and who has been in every school musical in some capacity since eighth grade should not throw stones in glass houses."

Trevor flushes slightly with a mock expression of betrayal on his face. Then, he ruins it by smiling brightly and humming a few lines of "I Feel Pretty."

Mike would envy his best friend's composure if it wasn't so damn irritating.

"Truthfully, I'm still hoping this is all a phase that I can work around and that one day I'll be married to a nice, beautiful girl who will play card games with my Grams and scold my kids so I can be the fun parent," Mike admits sheepishly. He's not in the habit of hiding his true nature except for on this one thing. It isn't too awkward talking about his sexuality around Rachel because they are pretty close for the amount of time they've known each other.

It's Donna he's worried about. The way that she looks at him makes him feel like this conversation is being recorded and will be used against him at a later date.

But that could be his paranoia talking.

Or the fact that she's the sister of Harvey Specter, the one man who revels in being out of the ordinary. He likes throwing his weirdness in other people's faces like a dare, or a taunt, but Mike isn't like that.

Mike is of the opinion that high school is tough enough with out being labeled in a category out of the traditional. Maybe he's cowardly or maybe he just knows Harvey Specter is one of a kind in the ways he handles any hazing that occurs.

"Do you want to bone my brother or not? It's pretty simple," Donna says bluntly, interrupting his inner thoughts.

Mike's eyes widen in horror and fly over to Harvey's table.

"Oh relax, he's all the way across the room. There's no way he can hear us," Donna scolds. Harvey isn't looking their way and doesn't catch Mike giving him the once over. Jessica does though.

At her quick smile, Mike hurriedly turns his head towards Donna. The redhead quirks her eyebrow and insists, "Well?"

Mike takes a big gulp of the chocolate milk carton seated on his tray. When he can't come up with another way to stall he clears his throat and finally responds.

"What do you want me to say? That he makes my knees weak? Or maybe that the sun pales in comparison to mesmerizing shape of his eyes? Or perhaps that he has the greatest ass in school," Mike says with no little amount of sarcasm and softly chuckles when Donna's nose scrunches in disgust.

"Although I'm not sure what I wanted or expected you to say, I am sure that none of those options are it. Yuck, lets refrain from mentioning my brother's ass in my presence, okay?"

Mike laughs again at her expense and then continues his previous vein of speech, " Straighter men than I have noticed how appealing Harvey is because let's face it, Harvey Specter might be a cocky, vain son of a bitch, but it's not like he doesn't have a reason to be."

Trevor honest to god giggles beside him. How is Mike the gay friend between the two of them he'll never know.

"Oh really tell us what you really feel, Miiiiikkkkee," Trevor drawls out.

" I really feel that a thirteen year old girl is trapped somewhere in your body," Mike deadpans.

"Shut up," Trevor mutters and elbows him in the ribs.

"So you are attracted to Harvey? Then the only problem is the whole gay identity crisis you're dealing with, right? Get over it, date Harvey Specter, get laid, and boom happily ever after. I'm not sure if he's the type to play cards with old people, but I'm sure that any kids you guys raise will ultimately think you're the fun parent by comparison," Rachel suggests. At Donna's quizzical expression, really everyone's except for Mike since he understands exactly what she's trying to say, she elaborates," Harvey's kind of comes off as strict. Not to judge too harshly, but I think the Pope would be the cool parent in comparison.""As funny and apt as that is, you can't tell me to just get over my 'gay drama' just so you can take your girl out on a couple of dates," Mike says exasperated.


End file.
